“I don’t deny it’s rather a pretty place,” said Mr Atheling; “and I thought of Agnes immediately when I looked out from the windows. There is a view for you! Do you remember it, Mary?--the town below, and the wood behind, and the river winding about everywhere. Well, I confess to you it _is_ pretty, and not in such bad order either, considering all things; and nothing said against our title yet, Mr Lewis tells me. Do you know, children, if you were really to go down and take possession, and then my lord made any attempt against us, I should be tempted to stand out against him, cost what it might?” “Then, papa, we ought to go immediately,” said Marian. “To be sure, you should stand out--it belonged to our family; what has anybody else got to do with it? And I tell you, Charlie, you ought to read up all about it, and make quite sure, and let the gentleman know the real law.” “Stuff! I’ll mind my own business,” said Charlie. Charlie did not choose to have any allusion made to his private studies. “And there are several people there who remember us, Mary,” said Mr Atheling. “My lord is not at home--that is one good thing; but I met a youth at Winterbourne yesterday, who lives at the Hall they say, and is a--a--sort of a son; a fine boy, with a haughty look, more like the old lord a great deal. And what did you say about Edgerley? There’s one of the Rivers’s married to an Edgerley. I won’t have such an acquaintance, if it turns out one of them.” “Why, William?” said Mrs Atheling. “Fathers and daughters are seldom very much like each other. I do not care much about such an acquaintance myself,” added the good mother, in a moralising tone. “For though it may be very pleasant for the girls at first, I do not think it is good, as Miss Willsie says, to have friends far out of our own rank of life. My dear, Miss Willsie is very sensible, though she is not always pleasant; and I am sure you never can be very easy or comfortable with people whom you cannot have at your own house; and you know such a great lady as that could not come _here_.” Agnes and Marian cast simultaneous glances round the room--it was impossible to deny that Mrs Atheling was right. “But then the Old Wood Lodge, mamma!” cried Agnes, with sudden relief and enthusiasm. “There we could receive any one--anybody could come to see us in the country. If the furniture is not very good, we can improve it a little. For you know, mamma----.” Agnes once more blushed with shy delight and satisfaction, but came to a sudden conclusion there, and said no more. “Yes, my dear, I know,” said Mrs Atheling, with a slight sigh, and a careful financial brow; “but when your fortune comes, papa must lay it by for you, Agnes, or invest it. William, what did you say it would be best to do?”